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| author | Tim Redfern <tim@eclectronics.org> | 2013-08-26 15:10:18 +0100 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Tim Redfern <tim@eclectronics.org> | 2013-08-26 15:10:18 +0100 |
| commit | 150c9823e71a161e97003849cf8b2f55b21520bd (patch) | |
| tree | 3559c840cf403d1386708b2591d58f928c7b160d /ffmpeg1/doc/multithreading.txt | |
| parent | b4b1e2630c95d5e6014463f7608d59dc2322a3b8 (diff) | |
adding ffmpeg specific version
Diffstat (limited to 'ffmpeg1/doc/multithreading.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | ffmpeg1/doc/multithreading.txt | 70 |
1 files changed, 70 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/ffmpeg1/doc/multithreading.txt b/ffmpeg1/doc/multithreading.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b992fc --- /dev/null +++ b/ffmpeg1/doc/multithreading.txt @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +FFmpeg multithreading methods +============================================== + +FFmpeg provides two methods for multithreading codecs. + +Slice threading decodes multiple parts of a frame at the same time, using +AVCodecContext execute() and execute2(). + +Frame threading decodes multiple frames at the same time. +It accepts N future frames and delays decoded pictures by N-1 frames. +The later frames are decoded in separate threads while the user is +displaying the current one. + +Restrictions on clients +============================================== + +Slice threading - +* The client's draw_horiz_band() must be thread-safe according to the comment + in avcodec.h. + +Frame threading - +* Restrictions with slice threading also apply. +* For best performance, the client should set thread_safe_callbacks if it + provides a thread-safe get_buffer() callback. +* There is one frame of delay added for every thread beyond the first one. + Clients must be able to handle this; the pkt_dts and pkt_pts fields in + AVFrame will work as usual. + +Restrictions on codec implementations +============================================== + +Slice threading - + None except that there must be something worth executing in parallel. + +Frame threading - +* Codecs can only accept entire pictures per packet. +* Codecs similar to ffv1, whose streams don't reset across frames, + will not work because their bitstreams cannot be decoded in parallel. + +* The contents of buffers must not be read before ff_thread_await_progress() + has been called on them. reget_buffer() and buffer age optimizations no longer work. +* The contents of buffers must not be written to after ff_thread_report_progress() + has been called on them. This includes draw_edges(). + +Porting codecs to frame threading +============================================== + +Find all context variables that are needed by the next frame. Move all +code changing them, as well as code calling get_buffer(), up to before +the decode process starts. Call ff_thread_finish_setup() afterwards. If +some code can't be moved, have update_thread_context() run it in the next +thread. + +If the codec allocates writable tables in its init(), add an init_thread_copy() +which re-allocates them for other threads. + +Add CODEC_CAP_FRAME_THREADS to the codec capabilities. There will be very little +speed gain at this point but it should work. + +If there are inter-frame dependencies, so the codec calls +ff_thread_report/await_progress(), set AVCodecInternal.allocate_progress. The +frames must then be freed with ff_thread_release_buffer(). +Otherwise leave it at zero and decode directly into the user-supplied frames. + +Call ff_thread_report_progress() after some part of the current picture has decoded. +A good place to put this is where draw_horiz_band() is called - add this if it isn't +called anywhere, as it's useful too and the implementation is trivial when you're +doing this. Note that draw_edges() needs to be called before reporting progress. + +Before accessing a reference frame or its MVs, call ff_thread_await_progress(). |
